Latest news with #customer success
Forbes
4 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Striking The Right Balance: AI, Humans And The Go-To-Market Engine
Aaron Biggs, VP of Revenue at Summit, is a tenured technology leader with expertise in growth, go-to-market strategy and customer success. If you're a sales or marketing leader right now, there's a good chance you're feeling the squeeze: Every budget conversation includes some variant of "Why haven't we automated this yet?" or "Can't we just add an AI tool instead of hiring?" It's a fair question. AI has been positioned as the great equalizer, offering scale, speed and analytics that no human could match. But when it comes to your go-to-market (GTM) motion, the right answer isn't binary. It's not a matter of AI or people. It's about deploying the right blend of automation and human engagement to differentiate in an increasingly impersonal landscape. The AI Temptation (And The Risk) AI is a powerful accelerant. Sales enablement, lead scoring, content generation, personalization at scale—these are all fertile ground for AI-driven efficiencies. But here's the rub: Automation alone can only get you to parity with competitors also wielding AI. Where AI starts to struggle is where the complexity of human decision making and the nuances of buyer behavior live. AI can help you predict when to reach out, but it can't (yet) sit across from a client, read the room and navigate the layered politics within an account. As of now, there's no GPT model that can decode why a champion suddenly went cold because of an internal reorg. At Summit, we often see clients eager to deploy AI tools for their infrastructure, sales or customer support, hoping for an overnight transformation. Yet the most successful outcomes come when those tools are implemented alongside strategies that amplify human expertise, not bypass it. Over-indexing on AI tooling risks creating a sterile buyer journey, efficient but undifferentiated. And in a market where experience is the differentiator, that's a strategic misstep. Human-Driven, AI-Augmented GTM What high-performing organizations are discovering is that AI is best used to augment the human component of sales and marketing, not replace it. • Insight Generation: AI can synthesize vast data sets, surfacing insights that enable sales teams to be more strategic in account planning. • Administrative Automation: Free your best sellers from data entry and research tasks, empowering them to do what they do best: Build relationships and navigate complex deals. • Content And Messaging Support: AI can help draft messaging frameworks, but humans still need to tailor the message to the specific business context, industry trends and stakeholder personas. When you approach AI as a co-pilot rather than an autopilot, you empower your teams to deliver a buyer experience that feels both personalized and thoughtful with the added speed and intelligence that AI brings. At Summit, we embrace this philosophy ourselves. Whether we're designing cloud infrastructure solutions, managed services or data protection strategies, we integrate automation and AI insights where they add value, but we always keep a seasoned expert in the loop to guide the client through complex decisions. It's how we ensure every engagement feels custom-fit, not cookie-cutter. The Buyer Experience Is Your Differentiator Buyers today are sophisticated. They know when they're talking to a bot, and they're increasingly resistant to cookie-cutter outreach. The buyer experience itself has become a competitive advantage, especially in complex B2B deals where relationships and trust still matter. Human sellers backed by AI insights can better read the subtle signals of buying intent, customize their engagement strategy and build the credibility that moves deals forward. This is especially critical in late-stage sales conversations and renewals—areas where trust and authenticity outweigh automation. At Summit, we see this play out in the infrastructure space all the time. Customers evaluating cloud hosting, colocation or disaster recovery solutions aren't just buying capacity, they're buying confidence. They want a partner who understands their business, anticipates risks and tailors solutions to their unique needs. AI helps us identify patterns and flag potential issues early, but it's our people who bring the consultative insight that wins trust. How To Invest Smartly When debating whether to invest in more AI tools or expand your GTM team, ask yourself: 1. Where are our current bottlenecks? If reps are buried in admin work, automation can free them up. If you lack deep account penetration, consider expanding human resources. 2. Where is the buyer journey breaking down? AI can improve early-stage lead gen and qualification, but mid-to-late funnel stages often benefit more from experienced human engagement. 3. What is our differentiation strategy? If experience, service and expertise are how you win, human investment should be prioritized and AI should act as a support layer. 4. How will we continuously optimize? The best AI tools improve with data and feedback, but your people are the ones providing that feedback loop. Summit routinely reviews the performance of our AI-driven insights with our client-facing teams to ensure we're tuning our approach, not just scaling it. A Practical Example From The Field In our own GTM efforts at Summit, we've invested in AI to streamline prospect research, competitive analysis and even content recommendations tailored for vertical markets like financial services or SaaS providers. But we also bolstered our sales engineering team to ensure that when a prospect raises a technical question, there's a real expert who can engage in depth. That combination of AI-enhanced targeting paired with human expertise has helped us build credibility faster and progress conversations more effectively than if we had leaned exclusively on automation or hiring alone. Final Thought AI isn't here to replace your people; it's here to make them more effective. But leaders need to resist the allure of full automation at the cost of buyer experience. The organizations that win in this new era will be those who get the blend right, pairing human authenticity with AI-powered intelligence to meet buyers where they are, with what they truly need. Summit's own journey has taught us that the future isn't AI versus humans. It's AI with humans. And when you strike that balance? You won't just keep up. You'll lead. Forbes Business Development Council is an invitation-only community for sales and biz dev executives. Do I qualify?
Fast Company
10-07-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
The next generation of business leaders must be adaptable
When my marketing role evolved to include customer success and renewals, some naturally expressed confusion on why a CMO with established expertise and an already large remit would willingly take on more. This confusion was not among colleagues (I'm fortunate enough to be part of a very supportive environment!) but among others inside and outside of my network. Looking back, that decision reinforced something I believe is a career accelerator and crucial in leadership. It's a lesson I've shared with many young professionals and I believe others should take it to heart. Adaptability defines who will lead tomorrow's companies and who won't. Here's how to think about becoming more adaptable. Break artificial barriers Sometimes we box ourselves in with professional or personal labels. 'I'm a marketer' or 'I'm an engineer' or 'I'm a mother' becomes both identity and limitation. These labels feel safe in a chaotic world. They create boundaries, but they can also limit growth. I've seen smart, capable young professionals turn down opportunities with a quick 'that's not in my job description.' They build walls around their roles, thinking they're creating safety without fully appreciating the downstream impact to their career growth. My shift from marketing into customer success happened deliberately. I wanted to understand the full customer journey firsthand. And now, every time I push beyond my comfort zone, I gain insights that change how I approach all aspects of our business. Look at the full picture Working across both marketing and customer success showed me connections I'd have missed otherwise. When you handle both sides of the customer relationship, patterns start to appear. You notice how your early marketing messages set expectations that affect renewal conversations months later. You spot the gaps between what attracts customers initially and what keeps them around. This full-picture view prepares you for executive roles in ways specialization can't. Senior leaders need to synthesize information from across departments—tough to do when you've only seen one slice of the business. Ride the wave of change Young professionals today face relentless workplace transformation. Technologies reshape entire industries overnight. Business models evolve constantly. People who excel amid this chaos don't resist change—they embrace it. When unfamiliar challenges crop up, they lean in rather than back away. This is something I strive to instill in my team and my children. When we are not afraid to take on unfamiliar challenges and we don't accept perceived limitations, we create permission for others to do the same. I've witnessed this ripple effect repeatedly. One person's willingness to push boundaries inspires colleagues, friends and family to reconsider their own self-imposed constraints and embrace a growth mindset. How to build your adaptability muscles Getting comfortable with change takes practice: Jumping into cross-functional projects exposes you to different departments Consider sideways moves before focusing solely on climbing up Ask questions about parts of the business you don't touch daily Find mentors with backgrounds different from yours Tackle unfamiliar tasks with curiosity instead of anxiety If someone requests your help with a task that falls outside of your area of expertise, view it as a chance to develop and expand your skills. Find new routes Adaptability opens doors that might otherwise stay shut. Reaching senior leadership often means finding alternate routes when traditional paths prove blocked. The biggest barriers to professional growth often aren't external obstacles or lack of opportunity, they're the invisible ceilings we build for ourselves. Connect the organization People who move between different functions bring unique value—they bridge communication gaps. They translate between specialized teams that struggle to understand each other. They spot problems and opportunities others miss. Companies facing complexity need leaders who make connections. When you demonstrate this skill, you stand out dramatically from peers who excel only in their specialty. Get comfortable with discomfort Becoming adaptable means feeling uncomfortable regularly. Stepping into new territory triggers self-doubt, but over time builds your confidence to trust your judgment. But, here's a poorly-kept secret: This discomfort never completely goes away, even for experienced executives. What changes is how you respond to it. You start seeing discomfort as a sign of growth rather than failure. Young professionals aiming for leadership positions gain an edge with this mindset shift. While others avoid challenging situations, you'll build versatility that makes you increasingly valuable. I project—with confidence—that we'll see leaders of tomorrow who continuously reinvent themselves, crossing boundaries, embracing challenges outside their comfort zone, and bringing diverse perspectives together. The real question: When unexpected opportunities appear, will you take them? I definitely think you should.
